How much commission can I pay influencers, and what models are there?

Your ceiling comes from your own numbers per order. Work with the contribution margin, meaning what is left after variable costs, and don’t leave out returns: if you only pay commission on goods that are kept, a return costs you no commission, but you still carry the shipping and handling.

If your programme runs through an affiliate network, deduct its fees under your contract from the budget before you set the rate. If the link comes with a discount code, work with the net price after the discount. The example uses assumed fashion figures with no network fees and no discount code, and returned goods go back on sale at full value.

1. Take the net price of a typical order, without VAT. In the example that is €60.
2. Subtract the cost of goods. At €24, that leaves €36 gross profit.
3. Factor in returns. With an assumed return rate of 40%, you keep 60% of orders on average, so 0.6 × €36 = €21.60 gross profit per order.
4. Subtract the costs that remain even when something is sent back: shipping, packaging and payment, assumed at €7, plus €6 per return, so 0.4 × €6 = €2.40. That leaves €12.20 contribution margin before commission.
5. Decide the minimum share you want to keep, half in the example. Your commission budget is then €6.10 per order.
6. Divide the budget by net sales after returns: €6.10 ÷ (0.6 × €60) = €6.10 ÷ €36 ≈ 17%. That is the highest commission on the net value kept that fits these assumptions.
7. If, say, one in three people who buy from you for the first time later order again with the same contribution and without commission, that adds €12.20 ÷ 3 ≈ €4.07 on average. With half of €16.27 as the budget, around 23% would be possible on first purchases.

All values in the table are assumptions, not industry figures. Put in your own. For fashion, the example deliberately assumes a much higher rate than the Bitkom average, because clothes have to fit, and size is the most common reason for returns in the survey. The percentages refer to net sales after returns.

If you pay commission on the order value before returns, the ceiling in the fashion example drops from around 17% to around 10%, because you then also pay for goods that come back. For beauty, with few returns, it makes little difference: 26% against 24%.

Start with a flat rate below your ceiling and leave room for tiers or a bonus. With tiers, check the top tier against your ceiling, not the bottom one. A later cut hits exactly the creators who already feature your products. When it pays to give individual creators their own rate, and how many extra orders that takes, is worked through in the guide on commission per creator.

Paying per click makes sense if you already pay for traffic, for example through ads. Compare it with what a visit costs you there.

If you pay creators a fee for advertising with photos, videos or texts they make themselves, the Künstlersozialkasse (KSK, artists’ social security fund) counts that fee towards the Künstlersozialabgabe (artists’ social security levy) in Germany: 4.9% in 2026, 5.0% in 2027. Commission from affiliate partnerships does not count, according to the KSK, because creators are paid for embedding affiliate links rather than directly for artistic or journalistic work. With a fixed fee plus commission, the fee counts in any case. The KSK FAQ does not address such mixed contracts specifically. Payments to a GmbH or another legal entity do not count, according to the KSK. Not every business has to pay the levy at all. That depends on your own business. Check what applies to your business with the KSK or your tax adviser.

According to LTK’s German FAQ, brands on LTK “usually” offer between 10 and 25% commission (read on 22 October 2026). That describes the brands on that platform and says nothing about your margin.

On amazon.de, Amazon’s standard fee schedule gives partners 0 to 6% depending on the category, for example 6% for clothing and accessories, 5% for furniture and home and 4% for beauty (read on 22 October 2026). These rates are no benchmark for your own ceiling, as they belong to Amazon’s calculation. But if Amazon also sells your product, creators can link there too, and your rate sits next to Amazon’s.

Even a rate at the top of that range doesn’t produce posts on its own. An affiliate programme in which creators can pick your products creates no reach as long as nobody posts. Many partners never become active, and the creators you most want usually only post when there is a reason, such as a campaign with a budget or a launch. Commission helps decide if a post pays off for them. The real task is getting creators active, many at once, and then seeing who sells.

With wyrld Boost, you take a campaign budget to creators who feature your products. You set the products, the period and the KPIs, such as sales or clicks, and decide which shops the purchases go through. Many creators can join in at the same time. Taking part is each creator’s own decision. The budget is paid out according to the KPIs reached, and creators label campaign videos as ads. In your calculation, treat the budget like a fixed fee and weigh it against the contribution from the sales.

If your affiliate programme runs through one of the large affiliate networks, wyrld shows up there as a single partner, through which hundreds of creators, mainly in fashion, beauty and interiors, can usually already pick your products. The brand and shop subscription shows you which creators behind it feature your products, who brings clicks and, where your shop reports sales, who sells. That way you don’t pay everyone the same commission: for the creators who sell, you set your own rates or bonuses, and wyrld sets them up. You pay for results, per click, per sale or both.

Without an affiliate programme, a direct connection is also possible. Prices for the subscription and Boost are available on request.